Sunday, March 29, 2009

Our Downstairs "Neighbor"

You might ask how we might have a downstairs neighbor when we live on the bottom floor of our apartment complex. Well, the answer is that we have a "friend" who lives under us. While I was frantically trying to finish up the revisions on my dissertation, which meant several late nights and even when I tried to go to sleep, I was so anxious that it took me forever. One night while William was already asleep, I heard something outside of our door. I thought it was just a raccoon so I ignored it. The next night, I heard the noise again and William was also awake to hear the loud pounding. William went out to take a look and this is what he found- not a raccoon but a POSSUM. Yup, here's the proof. I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes. And it is a pretty big one. He was trapped in our basement and trying to get out. I took this photo to our apartment manager who was equally surprised and she said that she would take care of it but that we should call her at night when we heard him. Well, our friend is super smart and knew that something was afoot and so he wouldn't make any noise until 4 am when there was no way that I was going to call anyone. Now that the major stress of revisions are done, I have actually been able to sleep and so I haven't heard him for awhile. I don't know what that means if he's still around, or found another home with animal control, or someplace else . . . But if he's still downstairs, we probably will hear him again at night, if we stay awake long enough.